Hey folks…
I recently picked up one of the little 6″ DD High Frequency (18.75kHz) for my Minelab X-Terra 70. I figured it would help me out in some of the super trashy areas I hunt. The general rule is that those higher frequency coils are better at getting the lower conductive targets (ex. gold) while the lower frequency coils nab the higher conductive (silver) targets. I just wanted a little coil to get in between the junk, and the DD construction helps in my tough ground.
The weather wasn’t exactly conducive to extensive hunting. Temps in my parts of the woods have been in the low 20’s F, but cabin fever forced me outside for a couple hours anyway. I decided to layer-up and hit a late 1800’s homesite that I had hunted once before. The home is now in a field shared with roaming cows and hasn’t been inhabited in about 20 years.
The previous trip was disappointing – the only thing to turn up was screw caps, and a lot of them. To say the site was trashy would be an understatement. Every swing caused 4 or 5 “nulls” in my detectors threshold, indicating an object that was being discriminated out. When I got to the site I quickly did an auto ground balance and set the sensitivity to 24. It was smooth without any falsing.
Just a few minutes into my very cold outing I got my first good signal. I pinpointed and struggled to dig a shallow, small plug. Frozen ground! Ugh. Not something we have to contend with in these parts very often!
Scan plug..nothing.
Scan hole…yep, still in there, but off a little bit.
Widen the hole a little bit…still off.
I finally nabbed the target. A coin!
The entire time I was here last time I didn’t find a single coin. This one was a penny, and I was hoping for an Indian Head. Wiping away the red clay revealed a copper memorial. Eh, oh well. It was a coin. The little coil was doing what it was supposed to.
I covered my hole and kept at it. Not 10 feet away I get another signal, this one a little higher on the X-terra’s meter. For some reason this one was tough to pinpoint too. Then I figured out my error – this is a double d coil, not a concentric! A total “duh” moment. DD coils are “hot” from tip to toe, while concentric coils are more sensitive in the middle. I wiggled the coil over the target, then slowly pulled BACK until the signal went away. Keeping an eye on that spot, I turned 45 degrees and repeated to verify. The object should be right under the front edge of the coil. I dug down, and sure enough, there it was. A dime. Clad. From then on I had no trouble pinpointing and didn’t even use the pinpoint feature of the detector.
I detected in the frigid cold about another hour, dodging cow patties that littered the turf. I received several other good signals, but a few I had to abandon because the ground was rock-hard. I was plenty impressed with the little coil. I couldn’t test the depth limits because I just wasn’t able to dig deeper than 4 or so inches, but a couple of the coins I retrieved were at least 4”. Unfortunately all the coins were modern. I’ll have to give another report when the ground is more “digable”!

Thanks for visiting. If anyone wants to share some experiences with little coils, detecting in freezing cold, digging in frozen ground, dodging cow patties, or anything else, go for it!

Lynn from Detector Depot was kind enough to give our readers a little “Detector 101″ advice. Are you looking into buying your first detector?

Read on!

“I would like to buy a metal detector and I’m not really sure what to get.”

This is a very common call we receive at Detector Depot. There seems to be quiet a few “greenhorns” entering the detecting world lately. Most callers do have some idea about the basics of a machine. What we like to do is to take them through a four step process to find out exactly what machine is best for them. We also inform them that cost does not always correlate to a great metal detector.

First we find out just exactly what it is they plan to do with their new machine. Is it coins and jewelry, beach hunting, gold prospecting, relics or a combination of some or all?

Second, after we ascertain the type of hunting they plan to do we then obviously look at what they are budgeting for in their new investment.

When a price range is secured we like to give the upside and downside of the machines that would “fit” their specifications. Defining ground balance, sensitivity, threshold and explaining the difference between a DD coil vs. a concentric coil, the benefits of using an elliptical coil vs. a round coil are some of the areas we discuss.

After giving the customer two to three machines to ponder we then discuss accessories and what they would need as beginners.

At Detector Depot we never and I say never recommend one machine over another when we have narrowed the choices to two or three. We feel that it is very important for the customer to “pull the trigger” on the final decision.

For most beginners there are several affordable machines that will give good depth, discrimination and very little frustration. This is the key for new enthusiasts……very little frustration.

We do have $600 machines that will actually find targets deeper than some $1000 machines. Buying a higher priced machine is very similar to purchasing an automobile. The more “bells and whistles” you have the higher the cost. However, the more expensive machines as a whole do find targets deeper and in worse soil conditions.

For the beginner, however, “bells and whistles” can frustrate and be a bit overwhelming. We have seen many customers who purchase a very expensive “bells and whistles” machine become very frustrated after they alter some of the factory settings to their personalized settings. There can be a lot of misinformation on the web about making these so called adjustments.

Taking a “turn on and go” machine out of the box and heading to your first hunting spot is where you can have the most fun and sometimes luck. There have been many a newcomer to find that extremely rare coin, CSA belt buckle or ring the first time out with a very moderate priced machine with the factory settings.

Bottom line, utilize a good and reputable dealer to walk you through the process. Also don’t feel as though you are being short changed if you don’t purchase the $1000 plus machine. Some of the best metal detectorists hunt with a moderate to low priced machine and do extremely well. A lot has to do with research and being patient. “Patience” is a great topic for someone else to address.

Good Hunting,
Lynn
Detector Depot

You can contact Detector Depot at www.detectordepot.com. Tell them iDetectorist sent ya!

If you metal detect, you’ve been there. Maybe it’s an old  home site, maybe a beach, maybe a civil war campsite. Could be the site of a former village or even a cellar hole.  Everything seems perfect for a day of great digs. Then you get there, swing for several hours, and have nothing to show for it.

I’ve been thinking about why this might happen, and have come up with a list.

Look it over, and let me know if you have anything to add.

• TOO MUCH TARGET MASKING/TRASH

I think this is one of the most likely reasons that goodies aren’t popping out of what should be a banner site.  What happens is that a good target is located too closely to an “undesired” metal object.  The metal detector “sees” the bad target and isn’t able to reset fast enough to indicate the presence of the good object.  You can see the result of masking by placing a coin and an iron nail next to each other on the ground.  Swing the detector over them and see how many “hits” you get.  If they’re close together you’ll likely only get one.  See how far you have to separate them, and how slow you have to swing before you can detect both objects.

Masking can sometimes be reduced by using a “faster” detector, a smaller search coil, reduced sensitivity, and/or different “tones” settings if your detector is capable.

• THE GOODIES ARE TOO DEEP

Sometimes it doesn’t matter how good your machine is, how “hot” you run the sensitivity, how low you have the discrimination, or  how big your coil is,  the good stuff might be down too far.  Just consider how grass, leaves, rain, mud, dirt, and footsteps can push a coin down into the ground as years (or centuries) march on.

• MINERALIZATION

There’s more than just “dirt” in your dirt.  Depending on where you live, there’s variable levels of iron and minerals in your ground as well.  To be effective the detector has to adjust to this ground mineralization and pick the good stuff out of these metallic-like ground conditions.  The higher the mineralization, the tougher it might be for the metal detector to weed out the good stuff, particularly at depth.

To compensate for this, use a detector that has manual or automatic ground balancing rather than a preset ground balance level.  Sometimes using less sensitivity is effective as higher sensitivity can be likened to using our bright-lights in the fog.  It just doesn’t go far.

• THERE’S NEVER BEEN ANYTHING GOOD THERE

I know, we don’t want to think of that. But consider “who” lived, worked, or played at your site in the past.  Are you at an old sharecropper house?  Not likely they dropped many silver dollars.  That would represent a month’s pay, and if a coin like that was discovered missing I’m sure they wouldn’t sleep till it was found.   Same with smaller denominations.  Money meant something to prior generations and it was guarded carefully.   If the folks didn’t have money, they didn’t lose any!

• OPERATOR ERROR

Yes, I had to go there.  Metal detectors are complicated machines and require PRACTICE! If you have a new detector or you are new to the hobby, LEARN your machine.  Read the manual, then read it again.  Set up a test garden and see how your machine responds to different items at different depths with different setting and different sweep speeds.  Reasons such as too fast sweep speed, sweeping too far off the ground, and arcing the coil are all reasons that good targets might be missed, and all can be corrected with practice and learning the machine.  Be sure to check the online forums, such as the ones listed in THIS POST , for help on using your detector.

• IT’S BEEN HUNTED OUT

No one likes to hear this one, and its usually not the case.  For the most part you can assume one or more of the above reasons has PREVENTED the site from being hunted out.  Still, a site that has been pounded to death by everyone with a metal detector is quite possible squeezed dry.

The remedy?  Do what other’s have been unwilling to do.  Go to the overgrown areas, swing the coil under the bushes.  Go to the part of the site that is “forgotten” about.  Or go somewhere else.

And if all else fails, find somewhere else to detect.

Hey folks,

I just added a blog roll to iDetectorist.com. Yeah, see it over there on the right and down some?

Well, if you have a blog and would like to swap links, just let me know and I’ll add it. Just respond with a comment. Of course, the key here is SWAP links, so I’d appreciate a return link.

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